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Kenya Red Cross rescues more than 90 people from hotels and lodges as heavy rainfall continuesScores of tourists have been evacuated by air from Kenya’s Maasai Mara national reserve after more than a dozen hotels, lodges and camps were flooded as heavy rains battered the country.Tourist accommodation facilities were submerged after a river in the Maasai Mara broke its banks on Wednesday morning. The...

Houses washed away and road cut off as dam collapses amid heavy rains and floods across countryAt least 45 people died when a makeshift dam burst its banks near a southern town in Kenya’s Rift valley in the early hours of Monday, police said, as torrential rains and floods hit the country.The disaster raises the total death toll over the March-May wet season in...

Total deaths reach 76 and more than 130,000 displaced as weeks of flooding also affects east African neighboursSeventy-six people in Kenya have died because of flooding triggered by torrential downpours since March, the government has said, warning residents “to brace for even heavier rainfall”.Kenya and its east African neighbours have been battered by stronger than usual rain in recent weeks, compounded by the El...

Exclusive: new role created after Guardian uncovered allegations against company’s security guardsA vast Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya that supplies most British supermarkets is advertising for a human rights manager to address its “human rights challenges” in the wake of allegations of killings and violence by its security guards.The job advert says the candidate will need to “develop a detailed action plan to...

Exclusive: Former guards tell of clashes on farm that is facing civil claims over allegations of killing, rape and beatingsFormer security guards at a vast Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya have for the first time described violent clashes between guards and thieves at the plantation, which is facing civil claims over allegations of killing, rape and beatings by its guards.This month Del Monte...

National palace guards set up security ring after gangs attack at least three police stations in Port-au-PrinceExplainer: what caused Haiti’s gang violence crisisPolice and palace guards worked on Saturday to retake some streets in Haiti’s capital after gangs launched massive attacks on at least three police stations.Guards from the National Palace accompanied by an armored truck tried to set up a security perimeter around...

Progress to prevent female genital mutilation needs to be ‘27 times faster’, says UNThe number of girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) has increased by 15% in the past eight years according to new data.Figures released by the UN children’s agency, Unicef, show that more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM, compared with 200 million...

It’s not clear if the new agreement can circumvent the Kenyan high court’s earlier ruling that such a deployment is unconstitutionalKenya and Haiti have a security deal to try to salvage a plan for Nairobi to deploy 1,000 police officers to the troubled Caribbean nation to help combat gang violence that has surged to unprecedented levels.Kenya agreed in October to lead a UN-authorized international...

Amina Noor travelled from north London with the child to Kenya where the procedure was carried out in 2006A woman who was found guilty of handing over a three-year-old British girl for female genital mutilation (FGM) during a trip to Kenya has been jailed for seven years.Amina Noor, 40, was convicted last year of assisting a Kenyan woman to carry out the procedure overseas...

Civil claim relating to alleged killing, rape and attacks by guards at pineapple farm should be struck out, claim firm’s lawyersFresh Del Monte has claimed it should not be held liable for a civil lawsuit alleging killing, rape and violence by security guards at its Kenyan pineapple farm because it is domiciled in the Cayman Islands.In the high court in Thika on Thursday, lawyers...

Exclusive: Investigation uncovers claims Del Monte representatives offered bribes in attempt to persuade men to back company’s version of events‘Pain of a mother’: families demand justice after deaths near Del Monte farmRepresentatives of Del Monte Kenya have been accused of offering bribes in an attempt to cover up the circumstances in which four men died after going to steal pineapples from its farm in...

Kenya’s Red Cross said it had taken 271 people to different hospitals across the capital of NairobiGas explosions at an industrial building in Kenya’s capital sent a huge plume of fiery smoke rising over homes, killing at least three people and injuring hundreds, authorities reported.Kenya’s Red Cross posted on X that it had successfully evacuated “271 individuals to different health facilities in Nairobi.” Continue...

Reports of at least a dozen cases of femicide since start of year prompt protests across the countryProtests against femicide have taken place across Kenya after a rise in killings this month.Reports of at least a dozen cases of femicide since the start of the year have prompted public outrage, debate and demonstrations across the country, including in Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa. Continue reading...

Judge says UN-backed proposals to tackle gangs in Caribbean country contravene Kenya’s constitutionKenya’s high court has ruled against a government plan to deploy hundreds of police to Haiti to lead a UN-backed multinational mission to fight escalating gang violence in the Caribbean country.Enock Chacha Mwita, the judge who issued the ruling, said: “Any decision by any state organ or state officer to deploy police...

Self-proclaimed pastor arrested over deaths of more than 200 people, most of whom had died of hungerA Kenyan court has charged a cult leader and dozens of suspected accomplices with manslaughter over the deaths of more than 200 people.Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and 94 other suspects, including his wife, pleaded not guilty to 238 counts of manslaughter, according to court documents seen by...

Another 19 African countries have plans to join the programme – bringing ‘more than just hope’ to a continent that suffers the vast majority of malaria deathsThe rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine began in Cameroon on Monday, which is said to be a “transformative chapter in Africa’s public health history”.The RTS,S vaccine – 662,000 doses of it – will be administered to...

At least four women have been murdered since the start of the year, leading to accusations of government inactionRights groups are calling for the Kenyan government to urgently investigate and prosecute cases of femicide, after the brutal murders of two women.“This is a national crisis – we are not doing enough as a country to protect women,” said Audrey Mugeni, the co-founder of Femicide...

Prosecutors say they intend to charge Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and dozens of other suspects with murder and terrorismKenyan prosecutors have said they intend to charge a suspected cult leader and dozens of other suspects with murder and terrorism over the deaths of more than 400 of his followers, after a court warned it may have to free him.The self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie is...

Exclusive: summary sent to UK supermarkets describes conflict between pineapple thieves and Del Monte security staffMajor human rights violations are being committed at a vast Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya where there have been numerous deaths and violence, according to the conclusions of an unpublished report.The findings, seen by the Guardian, are highly critical of Del Monte Kenya and include claims that the...